Language Studies

Proverbs 19:9 seems to talk about the futility of continually rescuing a very wrathful man. Giving up on someone is hardly a biblical attitude though. These twenty words of English cover just nine in the Hebrew one of which has an alternative reading. Hence the supplied italicised text in many English version trying to give sense to the…

How can the text of Proverbs 18:8 (repeated in 26:22) bear such different nuances of meaning? Wounds and tasty trifles, the renderings in the King James Version and its modern revision, are hardly synonyms. Other versions have, "dainty morsels" (JPS, NLT), "choice morsels" (NIV), "delicious morsels" (NRSV), "harmless" (Douay), "smooth"…

Problem Pronouns
The problem in this verse is the pronouns. Just who are the 'I', 'me', 'they' and 'him' mentioned, let alone the allusion to the 'son' and 'firstborn'. According to the context back in verse 1 of this chapter God is speaking and yet he is described as "pierced". Several Bible versions solve …

Is baptism a Christian sacrament necessary for salvation? Is full immersion necessary? What was John's baptism? Is it for adults only? Does the Holy Spirit come at baptism? Did the Jews have anything like Christian baptism? All good questions, which we won't answer here, another time perhaps. Our question here is what was the nature of…

We have already examined the earlier part of this passage that had been described as containing "obscure expression ... [and] obscure language" and lacking in precise meaning. The fire could have spoken of Spirit baptism as in Acts 2:3, indeed John the Baptist predicted that the Messiah would baptize with the "Holy Spirit and fire"…

This passage has been described as containing "obscure expression ... [and] obscure language"F1 and lacking in precise meaning. What is the fire and why should Jesus be impatient for it to spread? The Greek aorist "I came" when put back into Hebrew can equally be "I have come" expressing a future intent not yet realised, hence the desire…

"In the Difficult Sayings column "When is a pastor not a pastor?", on Ephesians 4:11, we saw that the title-office-function of 'bishop', 'overseer', 'elder', and, shepherd, was interchangeable. So the StudyLight forums' discussion of female pastors relates to all these offices, including bishops: "I am not sure if this has been posted .…

This strange verse is even called "a new thing" by the biblical author, but what does it mean and how is it fulfilled? Context helps considerably; taken in isolation it certainly is a conundrum. Commentators have described this as, "probably the most difficult verse to understand in the Book of Jeremiah". It is addressed to Israel, described…

Given the ongoing debate in the traditional Anglican Church as to the legitimacy of women bishops it seems appropriate to raise the interpretation of these verses. The Anglican communion allows women priests in most places and female bishops in 14 of its 38 provinces. Opposition to them comes from both the Catholic and Evangelical wings for…

The most common title in the modern church apart from priest or minister, which are often confined to the more traditional denominations rather than evangelical or free churches, is 'pastor'. Yet, it is the least common in the New Testament, apparently mentioned in passing just once. Nevertheless, the context …

This is an emotive subject for some. Christian and non-religious parents alike would mostly prefer to see their children minus tattoos, especially teenage ones. Yet, I receive almost weekly emails from many Christians wanting to put words of worship in Hebrew on their bodies, which might appear preferable to the name of an ex-girlfriend…

Psalm 19:7 describes the Torah/Law as tâmîym (Strong's #8549) which means "complete", "perfect", or "good". The same verse, however, goes on to describe it as "converting the soul", in Hebrew this is, tôrâh YHWH temîymâh meshiybhath nophesh. The word translated as "converting" in most translations is strictly speaking "returning" from the Hebrew…

Is this verse just too good to be true? We are "set free" (NRSV) "from all things" (NKJV). Well, there's always a catch. Contextually, this is about sin (Acts 13:38) and justification or declaring one righteous. We are not free to do as we wish. We are not free to contemptuously break the Law. That said, there does appear a difficulty…

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